1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to apparatus for growing crystalline bodies from a melt and more particularly to a susceptor-crucible melt system providing dendritic web growth of silicon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the growth of silicon dendritic web in a melt system including an inductively heated susceptor which contains a crucible, melt replenishment has received considerable attention as a means of decreasing costs and improving crystal quality. In such a system, particles or pellets are added at one end of the crucible as the web crystals are grown; however, the heat absorbed in the region where melting of the replenishment takes place creats a significant thermal unbalance in the region from which the web is drawn. The ideal thermal situation would be one that would have a hot region where the pellets are added with the remainder of the crucible being totally unaffected. One approach known to those skilled in the art is the use of a barrier within the crucible to localize a relatively hot melt replenishment region from the region from which the dendritic web is drawn. Additionally, various types of thermal modifications have been made by varying the shielding or by moving the induction heating coil; however, the result of these changes tended to provide a linear temperature gradient between the melt region and the growth region which is accompanied by undesirable crystal characteristics.